Below is my column in The Hill on the statement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that true billionaires do not exist because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. Figures such as Jeff Bezos are merely capitalist unicorns according to this new socialism mythology. The problem is that she, and other socialists and Democrats, are fast making this fable come true.
Here is the column:
This week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist.
On a podcast, Ocasio-Cortez declared with all the certainty of a freshman in a Smith College political science course that the notion of a self-made billionaire is simply a fantasy, because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. It is only the latest in a series of socialist fables that are being dressed up as economic facts.
The difference is that this fable, if told often enough, could become true.
In suggesting that true billionaires are a capitalist myth, Ocasio-Cortez is suggesting that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really did not earn their wealth and, therefore, it is really not their money.
“There’s a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned. You can’t earn a billion dollars. You just can’t earn that. You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they’re worth, but you can’t earn that.”
In other words, you can only make a billion dollars through theft and exploitation rather than actual entrepreneurial enterprise. This statement comes as support builds for the California billionaires’ tax which, even before it has a chance to pass in November, has already cost the state trillions due to an exodus of these billionaires.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss common myths spread by the left to fuel economic factionalism. One common myth is that the “wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.” In truth, the top ten percent of taxpayers pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S. In the book, I also dispel the claim that most millionaires inherited their wealth or came from privileged backgrounds.
These myths are designed to make redistribution schemes more palatable. And Democrats are ramping up the “eat-the-rich” rhetoric ahead of the midterms in pushing both millionaire and billionaire taxes. Democrats from Washington to Virginia are pushing millionaire taxes, and the mere conversation has already set off a stampede of high-earning taxpayers to red states like Texas and Florida, which have no state income tax.
It was also evident in this week’s California gubernatorial debate. Candidate Katie Porter (D) said she opposes the billionaire’s tax because it would not go far enough. Porter then pressed the only billionaire in the group, Tom Steyer, who has been moving to the far left to grab voters in the wake of the departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) as a candidate. Steyer said that he supports the billionaire tax but would want to go even further.
Steyer has spent a fortune of his own money on this race, apparently to convince Democratic primary voters that he is some kind of red billionaire in the mold of a George Soros or Neville Roy Singham. Good luck with that — after spending roughly $150 million of his own money, Steyer is still languishing between 12 and 18 percent support.
Of course, Steyer was not asked if he believes that real billionaires such as himself exist. Yet he has already apologized for making considerable money on private prisons, including those used to hold undocumented immigrants.
Ironically, in finance, a “unicorn” is a company worth more than $1 billion dollars, a term coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to capture the rare and almost magical status of such enterprises.
Conversely, Ocasio-Cortez’s unicorn myth is part of a general denial of economic realities that has taken hold on the left. The cost of these policies is borne by workers, who are being left to eat soundbites.
Democrats have sold voters on raising minimum wages as high as $30 per hour, even though such policies cost thousands of jobs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bragged about blocking a merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, claiming that it would create cheaper flights and better jobs. Spirit has now been forced to close its doors, causing the loss of thousands of flights and jobs.
A rising generation of voters is eagerly devouring soundbites and promises of the “warmth of collectivism” from figures like New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. From promises of free buses to state-run grocery stores, voters are buying the same threadbare socialist schtick.
That was on display this week as socialist Seattle mayor Katie Wilson laughed when asked about the millionaires fleeing the city over rising taxes and crime. She delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!”
The last laugh, however, rests with those fleeing a city facing a projected deficit of $114 million. As Wilson faces major cuts in the city budget, she gleefully mocks those whose tax dollars the city will desperately need to close this gap if it is to maintain public services.
Ironically, Wilson and other Democrats are quickly making their myth a reality. Soon, there will be no billionaire unicorns roaming the land. Even millionaires may become scarce, as these wealthy citizens move to less hostile states with less delusional leaders.
The solution to this exodus is equally predictable. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has campaigned for a billionaire tax in his state while representing Silicon Valley, has also joined with socialist Bernie Sanders to push for a national billionaire’s tax — an effort to guarantee that there is no place to hide. This is the same approach that tanked the French economy under François Mitterrand after the wealthy fled that nation.
This is not, however, a time for economics or history. It is the time of fables. Ocasio-Cortez has thrived in the land of socialist unicorns. She can even attend the ultra-rich Met Gala wearing an expensive “Tax-the-Rich” gown.
Like her dress, it is fashionable to deny that billionaires created their wealth. It is your money for the taking. The result is that billionaires and even millionaires in states like New York may go the way of unicorns, fanciful creatures that once thrived in a land of jobs and growth.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
That’s funny because I feel the same way about members of Congress that become multi-millionaires. They couldn’t have earned it!
Earned it? They certainly did. They worked darn hard to get into congress, that takes smarts, money and hard work. And rich friends with agendas.
Why would you deny them that?
AOC: When I was growing up, I was told it was better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. You have been removing all doubt on the national stage for too many years to count now. Please explain Billionaire Barack Obama’s net worth. Asking for a friend.
The friend here… anon you write B_S_. Oh, asking for another friend… what billions? Got any bank stmts.?
Bernard Marcus (now dead) and Arthur Blank founded Home Depot with two stores in 1979. They were not wealthy. By the time of their retirements, with some 1,200 stores, they were both multi-billionaires.
They became *more* productive and *created* more wealth as the number of their stores increased.
And that is what socialists (like the envious AOC) wish to punish: success for being success.
Ignoring “Demand-Side” economics led to the Great Depression and the collapse of Wall Street.
Ronald Reagan’s economic advisor David Stockman warned extremists that “Supply-Side” theory doesn’t work without strong “Demand-Side” consumers.
Wow! The catalyst of the US economy summed up in 24 words. Pure genius.
the economic model of the thieves that met on an island caused the crashes of the market. you maroon…..
The economic model of the “fed”, with it’s built in debt, led to all crashes of the market, it was designed that way…
you maroon..
MAGAA1st knows, the fed is dead.
1st 45-47n28 destroyed the crowns ability to influence the our gov’t, then 45-47n28 destroyed the crowns ability to affect oil prices by destroying the ‘choke’ point, then 45-47n28 destroyed the ‘installation’/election system in the states, the ‘fed’ is the next target. I can’t wait to hear the commi’z crying in their post toasties when that occurs….
hey anonymous, go crawl baQ under your dam rock….
11b
AOC is THE poster child for the privileged, ignorant, trophy generation; I don’t think she even knows what altruism is, just elevating AOC, and making AOC feel better. There is something seriously wrong with that chick. The same goes for her followers. Their ‘collectivism’ is all about ‘collectively’ self-aggrandizing themselves.
At least, though he was a clod, Che Guevara had enough grey matter between the ears to do medicine; these kids can’t tie their own shoes without their nannies.
Aoc who has made $30 million on bribes
Underpayment Ruling: In July 2025, the House Ethics Committee announced that Ocasio-Cortez did not pay the fair market value for the rental of the gown, shoes, handbag, and accessories, calling the initial payments “unrealistic”.
Democrat equals Evil
No exception
guyventer… equals stupid… no exception.
She is talking about CASH she imagines to be stuffed inside gargantuan mattresses.
She’s absolutely clueless as to how INVESTMENT CAPITAL sustains our economy, and actually makes it possible for someone with very little money to eventually be a billionaire
Well Anonymous thanks for your usual juvenile, irrelevant, parasitic and nasty reply to someone making sense.
Well hullbobby thanks for your usual juvenile, irrelevant, parasitic and nasty reply to someone making sense.
Great retort…genius.
Make sense? You jest. Gawd are you fing stoopid.
Yes, this particular Anonymous is a character whose replies gives the appearance of a petulant child wanting their toy, which was taken from them so the child would eat. And don’t hold your breath waiting for him (presume it is a male) to have some rational ideas he can provide. His replies are always negative, which reminds me of the old saying of “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” is apparently alive and well in the warped mind of Anonymous.
and who are you to ask who are you? who who who who
AOC graduated cum laude from Boston University majoring in economics (and international relations, a double major). Speaks for itself.
She received the Doug Flutie “fake it till you make it” award
wait a minute, the donkey went to college? How did IT afford that…..¿
By her own words, she clearly shows she does not know what she is talking about. That was the point wonderlandcreatively8b2e787a5a was making. Sorry you are not educated enough to see that.
I know of no provision in the US Constitution for obscene wealth to coexist with abject poverty. And, as I see it as a politically independent senior citizen, there are only four criminal ways anyone can become obscenely wealthy in America: 1) outright crime (e.g., embezzlement, extortion, smuggling, theft, etc.), 2) charging excessively for products and/or services, 3) evading lawful taxation and/or 4) inheriting ill-gotten-wealth from a criminal predecessor. Nature not only abhors a vacuum it favors balance, moderation and stability. The rich man’s mind is one of insane imbalance in favor of self. With America as a nation being a lot like an individual human being, functionally (e.g., President, conscious mind; Senate, left brain; House, right brain, etc.), American billionaires in the US economy are akin to brain tumors in human beings; hoarding nutrients and blood flow to grow self until the body dies. For the working-class majority, these days, justice, liberty and well being are the “unicorns.” About all there is to protect with our too frequently misused military might is the wealth of the rich. Therefore, let’s abolish all of the unfair taxation and institute a more fair domestic flat rate individual income tax only, based on relative wealth and applied to annual incomes, leaving current wealth intact. Just about anything else would be “ex post facto” and dysfunctional. Anecdotally, a good example would be a “penny ante” billionaire President who saves us $56 million a year on coins and spends $50 billion plus on an unnecessary undeclared war with a minor threat adversary while causing rapid inflation and some five to six thousand unsuspecting Americans die prematurely daily from FDA approved food poisoning and failed medical care. Charles G. Shaver/CGS
Ano
unnecessary undeclared war with a minor threat adversary
______________
Just like O-dumbers war against Libya and Syria.
Just think about the FACT. A black American Prez turned Libya into a black slave trading country. Great job O-dumber.
How about you and Dustoff reading Article 1, Section 8., about taxation, the common defense and the general welfare of “We the People of the United States…”? CGS
Oh, yeah, you got me… states specifically what we have to do when someone is a billionaire. My bad.
The power of Congress to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;” says NOTHING about a person’s income. In fact, it wasn’t until the 16th Amendment (ratified in 1913), that Congress had the authority to collect taxes on an individual’s incomes. I would suggest two things: (1) An Economics Course, and (2) a Tax Law course.
I happen to have a son who has a Master’s in Accounting, and has had Professor Turley in his 1st year Torts Class (he just finished his second year at George Washington Law School).
Then he no doubt understands that Congress has the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare,” which consists of roads, water, post offices, electricity, sewers, rubbish collection, police, fire, EMTs, etc., and that “general” means ALL or THE WHOLE and “welfare” means WELL PROCEED, and that the only licit regulation is enumerated in Article 1, Section 8.
Unnecessary undeclared war with a minor adversary…🤣
That minor adversary is the number one terrorist sponsor in the world and was actively seeking nuclear weapons. That minor adversary actively engaged in supplying weapons and equipment to proxy terror organizations in Iraq and Afghanistan used to kill and maim American soldiers and civilians. That minor adversary has harassed and terrorized its neighbors for decades and shakes down the entire world over passage in international waters through the Straits.
The last Presidents since Carter ALL had indicated that they had wanted to take care of Iran theocracy and address the threat and were sorry they did not.
President Donald J Trump had the balls to do it. He’s doing it with minimal loss of life, if you want to cry Gigi, cry about the fraud here and the lost tax money here.
8 Ball for the win!
Decades of illegal and stupid US exploitation and interference in the sovereign states and affairs of the Middle East precipitated the tragic so-called “terrorist” (actually “gorilla warriors”) retaliation attacks of “9/11” with at least three unheeded prior warnings. George W. Bush hand no justification for instigating his multi-trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What I wonder is “Humpty-Trumpty” going to precipitate as the vast majority of US voters and you money-monger-worshipers continue to deny reality? CGS
Hmmm, seems to me I recall this guy named Bill Clinton that cut funding to Intelligence Agencies after the Taliban assassination of the preferred Mujahideen leader in Afghanistan. He was also made aware of the threat Al Qaeda posed with Osama Bin Laden and their plotting against American interests. He was provided the opportunity to take Osama out during a hunting trip with his 9/12 coconspirator Saudis yet failed to act. Tell the whole truth, I agree the Bushes were complicit, One World Order Spooks, a total failure of our Republics government and leadership.
Anonymous 7:28AM
Obviously a senior citizen who learned little to nothing in his/her life. This anonymous individual sounds like a sound bite from the mainstream media. Billionaires have Roamed the wilds of North America since the late 1800’s ( adjusted for inflation). Capitalism gave any and nearly everybody a chance to achieve their dreams and goals. All you had to do was work hard, focus, have a goal and recognize opportunity and seize it. Whether it was Andrew Carnegie or Steve Jobs the whole American story encompasses this opportunity.
If you failed then that’s on you. Many did not. The United States went from 13 colonies in 1776 to the richest country in the world by 1895 and we did not even have an income tax federally. That was due to Individuals and not a national federal monopoly.
Does everybody become a millionaire, or a billionaire. No. Many don’t develope the gifts they have, or fail to do the work, or have no vision, and insufficient drive, or sometimes just bad luck. It also takes grit and failure before you achieve success. The average entrepreneur fails at least 3 times before having a successful business. Most people simply don’t have the drive or skill (brains) to do it.
Least of all AOC otherwise known as the Mouth Without a Brain.
I know many people hate meritocracy usually because they lack merit. If you failed, look in the mirror and you’ll see the culprit. Oh and everybody gets knocked down. Thats a given. What do you do? Lie there and cry or do you get up and rectify the situation. While you lie flat on your face crying about the unfairness of it all, other people are getting up and passing you by. Better get your ass in gear.
Capitalism gave any and nearly everybody a chance to achieve their dreams and goals. All you had to do was work hard, focus, have a goal and recognize opportunity and seize it. … you missed the part … kill for it.
Freedom, free enterprise, free industries, free markets, and free market competition gave everybody a chance to achieve their dreams and goals.
“Capitalism” is a pejorative used to disparage by the diseased drunkard, Karl Marx.
GEB 8:26 AM (good style, GEB)
Of the many extra things I learned during my externally hindered working-class eighty-two years (and counting) of life, I once read a bumper sticker on moving car stating: “The one with the most toys wins.” To my way of thinking: “The one who dies last wins.” While never in the best of health myself, I’ve been freely sharing my somewhat successful lay findings on the underlying causes of chronic diseases, FDA approved food poisoning and excessive related/resultant medical errors with thousands of professional others of various specialties for a little more than twenty years now, with little to no engagement. If wealth is that important to you and your ilk, so be it and I have better things to do than to try to reeducate those who still fail to see that the Founders prescribed America to be a peaceful, prosperous, moderate secular socialist nation, not the capitalist (alleged Christian) money, power and war mongering failure it is today. The best way to lead is by good example. Happy “Farce of July” on the upcoming fourth thereof. CGS
I like the saying, “He who dies with the most toys…Is still dead”.
Another way of putting that: I’ve never seen a hearse with a U-Haul!
I’ve seen tombs. King Tutankamun was buried with all that he owned. Chinese emperors were buried with everything including full size pottery figures of their armies, anon. Apparently you can take it with you.
Jesus said not to be concerned about the wealthy because they have their own reward. It’s been interpreted in many ways but means they live separately from the envious rabble of the earth. You needn’t be concerned.
GEB,
Great comment!
And I do think it has a degree of those who failed and did not get up, their envy drives this entitlement to others wealth who did get up and succeed.
Charles you are dumb as FU*K!! Flat tax based on relative wealth and applied to annual incomes is therefore NOT a flat tax! Minor threat adversary? If iran were to have intercontinental nuclear ballistic missiles they would most likely have already been launched at the USA and Israel! I suppose we could only hope that it would land on your house first! You’re on sick FU*K!!
“I know of no provision in the US Constitution for obscene wealth to coexist with abject poverty.” This isn’t just an idiotic statement, it ignores human nature and economic realities. There are people who REFUSE to do what it takes to be anything other than poor. Even Jesus understood this, when he said, (in Matthew 26:11), “For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always…” Further, Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” Human nature, being what it is, has many people who will do the bare minimum to get by, and there are a few, who will “go above and beyond”. We are, currently, REWARDING those who do NOTHING other than breathe and take up space. We should NOT do that. Then we chastise and excoriate those who take risks and (in the words of Dave Ramsey), “go out of the cave, kill something and bring it back”. How many businesses has Elon Musk started? How many have you started? Me? None!
The problem with an attitude such as yours, AOC’s, Zohran Mamdani’s, or any Socialist, is this: it is ROOTED in Envy and Coveting what other people have. I do not envy what Elon Musk has, he has a different skill set than I have, and different wants/needs than I have. In essence, I don’t care. I have enough problems taking care of what I need to take care of. More people would be better off if they just cared about what they had, and their OWN family’s needs, and not cared about their neighbors.
Unfortunately, too many people follow another of Dave Ramsey’s sayings: They buy things they can’t afford, with money they don’t have, to impress people they don’t even like!
Why don’t they buy the things they NEED, with money they have, and not care about others (whether they like them or not)?
Anonymous 9:23 AM
Simply put, both obscene wealth and abject poverty are unconstitutional. And, as an avid student of nature, extremism is inherently self-destructive. Enough for this thread, I have a schedule to adhere to today. CGS
Perhaps they wish the rich were more generous? Many wealthy people are quite generous as they generate and create pensions for the working person. It’s often not apparent.
Blah blah, duping fools into buying and desiring 6000 dollar shoes when actual cost to produce is 20 dollars. Don’t buy it nor save for pensions either, huh?
i picture you actually green, very green, with envy.
See, that’s the problem with communism and commies, they avoid hard work that would further themselves personally as that’s not ‘collective’ thinking. It creates ugly, greedy people.
Democrat economic geniuses like AOC, Bernie and Liz never criticize Alex and George Soros, Neville Roy Singham, or Reid Hoffman. They are silent when it comes time to talk about seizing the wealth of their patrons. In fact, they are quite happy taking money from these billionaires. “Our billionaires good, your billionaires bad,” they say.
Let’s start with Reed Hoffmans money
Hoffman’s money? Okay. he still has it all. A 3 billion of it. No gov took it away. That about right? Yup!
Obama made almost the same absurd crypto-Commie claim back in 2012 when he said “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Poppycock like that has overtly been poisoning impressionable minds for almost a generation now.
Yes, that one statement was why I hated him. Such an A-hole for saying that for so many reasons. Also the “hope and change” slogan. Hope is a submissive term.
The threads of his web are made of envy, retribution of perceived insults within his own soul. He seeks power in the mob. He weaves a net to haul in the same.
The United States is NOT a democracy. Analyzing 1,779 policy issues over a 30-year period, a 2014 Princeton University study concluded that the U.S. political system functions as a plutocracy, where wealthy elites and corporate interests dictate policy.
I assume that politicians are less altruistic than they portray themselves, which is why it is difficult to trust their proposed solutions. My interactions with Amazon are voluntary. My interactions with the IRS are not. I am amazed when people trust that the political class will slay the the evil corporate dragon for them. Sounds like a fairy tale to me…
Princeton, a bastion of woke common.
We are a Republic, not ruled by a monarch. We are a representative Republic, we choose or representatives by a system of elections with checks and balances called limited democracy. At least we were before the Democrats decide to cheat and fix elections.
For democracy to function properly elections must be free and fair, and Democrats hate that.
If AOC (and the rest) think you are a “billionaire” does that mean they think your INCOME is over $1B or your net worth? Big difference tax-wise. I doubt there are more than a handful of people in the USA who have $1B in INCOME (even including capital gains) in any one year, and if there are, I doubt that such INCOME is a regular event.
True. AOC allegedly has an economics degree. She certainly knows the difference between income and wealth. The only rational conclusion one can draw is that she is intentionally lying for political gain, not mistaken.
She’s a dishonest politician. Who woulda guessed?
The Democrats have perfected the crafts of lying and propaganda.
Prof, respectfully, the AOC gown at the 2021 Met Gala actually said “Tax The Rich”.
Define rich? Anyone with more money than me.
Look, an honest man!
Turely already called tax the rich and eat the rich the same thing. He was using hyperbole for effect.
Steyer said that he supports the billionaire tax but would want to go even further.
***************************
Yeah, total BS. If he really believes this. Send in a nice check to the IRS. Yet he and other libs , just talk and that’s it.
BS huh? You have no idea Steyer’s wealth or how his business manages it. You’re more stupid than AOC.
Has he written a nice check to the IRS………….. Nope. Just more lib double talk.
If he had. It would be on the news 7/24.
Use what little brain power you may have.
One 2028 Democratic Platform plank not mentioned so far is that when the Dems finally do achieve a trifecta of power, they will almost certainly create a millionaire/billionaire tax nationwide. Then, nobody’s moving to Florida or Texas to escape. This will be called the “We Own Your Butt Act.”
Nationwide tax … it’ll never happen. I’ll betcha a billion dollars.
“In other words, you can only make a billion dollars through theft and exploitation rather than actual entrepreneurial enterprise.”
AOC isn’t that far off the mark. Some degree of corruption contributes to wealth accumulation. Think of the railroad and oil barons of the late 1800’s and extrapolate from there.
Why then did congress make the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 etc…
How true.
Perhaps the title should be “You just can’t really be that stupid and fatuous.” She takes imbecile to a whole new level.
A reflection of a large part of our society. And it’s not getting better.
And yet she’s a two congresswoman and you’re an anonymous whiner. Must hurt being stupid and male, eh?
Well, she has been shown to be the most useless Congress person in Congress. And her winning twice only goes to show how dumb her voters are. Her district is a hot mess with her own voters protesting against her at her townhalls.
HAHAHA, so true David.
AOC for President!
Please excuse me while I go throw up.
You’ve missed your breakfast, so need to turn off the computer and go eat.
Hey, we elected O-dumber and look what he did to Libya.
I pray she runs…lock for gop